Marketing Secrets
Marketing Secrets
Building a Content Castle
Part 3: What do people do with the information?
Make sure to catch Part 1 on topics and Part 2 on channels.
You’ve created a killer content calendar that will meet all of your goals. As you are writing your content to fill the calendar and before publishing, make sure it aligns with what you had in mind at the beginning. The big question is: Have you shared what you set out to share in a way that will get the results you want?
What do people do with the information?
As you are writing each content piece, keep in mind exactly what you want people to do with the information. These calls to action can be limitless but should be specific–click to your website, read and understand, ask questions, take a survey, like, comment, sign up, show up, buy something, etc.
If one of your goals is to drive traffic to your website, I suggest creating blog page on your website that holds all your content. Every post in your channels can tease and point back to the content on the blog. It’s a closed loop that can help track metrics and see where you’re getting click-throughs and engagement.
Let’s revisit Jemma’s Home Gems. Jemma knows that when people visit her website, she sells more products. Each of her 5 chosen channels are opportunities to showcase her newest seasonal products and redirect people to her website. On her blog, she writes about her inspiration for new Fall wreaths, candles, and soaps. She also creates a landing page for her Fall Sale on her site that embeds her Etsy Shop for easy checkout. On Instagram, Facebook, and the Farmer’s Market E-Newsletter, she highlights each new item in the Fall Sale and links them back to her blog to learn more about her inspirations. Leading up to the next Farmer’s Market, she shares details on each of the products she will be selling at the event and links back to her Fall Sale landing page for pre-orders.
To engage her audience, she decides to do a Fall wreath giveaway. To enter, people can follow her on social media and/or sign up for a future mailing list on the website for an additional entry to win.
Jemma is not only working her existing audience but also building a framework to create another channel in the future – a mailing list for customers and fans. With every post, it is clear what she wants them to do, and she’s using a few pieces of information in several different ways.
Measurement
The last, but incredibly important, part of this exercise is measurement. With your clear content goals in mind, make sure you have outlined clear metrics and target numbers to measure your success. Meaning: if you are looking to increase web traffic from social media posts by 10%, measure click-throughs on social media, evaluate referring sites to your blog and website, and assess overall traffic growth. If you are looking to increase social media engagement by 50%, measure likes, comments, and shares/retweets as well as the quality of each, the best performers, and how you can repeat it.
Steer clear of mismatched goals and measurements. For example, measuring website traffic from social media growth by evaluating social media engagement numbers.
It’s also good to look at your content as a full body of work. How are certain pieces doing? Did any of them go viral? Have you tried reposting with a different image/caption to get better results? Content is a living thing, and you can always adjust to get the results you’re looking for.
Assuring you have a method to capture these metrics is also important. You must set up the tool well before you want to start measuring to assure you have a valid benchmark. Google Analytics is a quick connection to your website to evaluate traffic and social media engagement. If you are using a social media scheduler, they will have engagement data dashboards for all your connected channels as well.
So, are you all planned out? While this is a significant exercise, it’s also one of the most useful tools you can access to get after consistent and meaningful content.
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